Stephen Paddock: Vegas suspect a gambler and ex-accountant

BBC: Alleged Las Vegas concert gunman Stephen Paddock was a wealthy former accountant who seemed to be living a quiet retirement in a desert community.

The 64-year-old, of Mesquite, Nevada, had a pilot's and hunting licence and no criminal record, said authorities. But one former neighbour said the suspect was a professional gambler and "weird".

There was reason to believe Paddock had a history of psychological problems, a US official told Reuters news agency.

It is the deadliest shooting in modern US history, with the toll surpassing the 49 killed at a nightclub in Orlando, Florida, in June 2016.

Paddock opened fire from the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino on Sunday night, killing at least 59 people and wounding more than 500 others, before turning the gun on himself as police closed in, said officials.

Sixteen weapons were found in the 32nd-floor hotel room that Paddock checked into last Thursday, Las Vegas Sheriff Joseph Lombardo told reporters. A further 18 firearms and thousands of rounds of ammunition were found in his Mesquite home, while explosives were found in the property and car. Sheriff Lombardo also said officers found "some electronic devices" in the house, which sits in a quiet retirement community.

David Famiglietti of the New Frontier Armory told the BBC that Paddock had purchased firearms at his store in North Las Vegas in the spring of this year, meeting all state and federal requirements, including an FBI background check. However, the shotgun and rifle Paddock bought would not have been "capable of what we've seen and heard in the video without modification," Mr Famiglietti said.

But the FBI said its agents had established no connection between Paddock and any overseas terrorist group, despite a claim from so-called Islamic State. The suspect's brother, Eric Paddock, told reporters their father was a bank robber who used to be on the FBI's most wanted list and once escaped from prison. According to a 1969 poster issued by law enforcement for the fugitive, Patrick Benjamin Paddock was "diagnosed as psychopathic".

Eric Paddock told reporters outside his Orlando home that the family were stunned by his brother's alleged involvement in the Las Vegas massacre. "There's absolutely no sense, no reason he did this," he said. "He's just a guy who played video poker and took cruises and ate burritos at Taco Bell." He told reporters his brother was "not an avid gun guy at all" and had no military background. The gunman must have just "snapped", he added.

According to NBC News, Stephen Paddock recently made several gambling transactions in the tens of thousands of dollars, but it was unclear if those bets were wins or losses. The suspect's other brother, Bruce Paddock, told NBC his brother was a multi-millionaire property investor.